Polly and Rose were walking along the beach on the way to call for Sprite. They had not decided how to spend the morning, but whatever they chose to do, they surely would enjoy themselves, for never were three playmates happier in each other's company.
"A long time ago when you first came to Avondale to live at Sherwood Hall, we named you Princess Polly. We never seemed to think of you as Polly Sherwood, your truly name," Rose said.
"And I liked you the first day I met you by the brook," Polly said, "and I thought Rose Atherton was such a pretty name."
"Sprite's name just fits her," said Rose, a moment later, "for she looks like a sprite, or a sea nymph, and so Sprite Seaford seems just the name for her.
"There she is now, coming toward us. Let's run to meet her."
"I took the telescope, and looked up the beach," Sprite said, when they met, "and kept looking until I saw you. Then I put it back on the mantel, and ran to meet you. Now come over to the place I call the bay."
She led the way, and they followed. The bay, as Sprite called it was a place where a ledge projected into the water in such a way that the incoming waves rushed past it, sweeping up onto the sand in a curving line.
It was not much of a bay, but it served as a name, and they always knew what she meant when she spoke of it.
Its shallow water was fine to play in, and when the tide went out, there always remained a little pool that reflected floating clouds.
On its clear surface they skipped flat stones, and they marvelled to see how skillful was little Sprite.